Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member
Corker, thank you for inviting me to testify today on our
efforts to counter Russia’s de-stabilizing, provocative
actions in Ukraine and to preserve Ukraine as a united,
democratic state.

I want to express my deep appreciation
to the members of this committee for the bipartisan support
you have shown to Ukraine and its people since this crisis
began. The Senate’s passage of the U.S. loan guarantee
legislation sent a strong signal of America’s support. And
the visits that so many of you have made to Ukraine
reinforce America’s bipartisan solidarity with the
Ukrainian people during this critical time.

When Assistant
Secretary Chollet and I testified before the Subcommittee on
European Affairs on April 10, I outlined four pillars of
U.S. policy to address the challenges in Ukraine. Let me
re-state them again briefly. First, the United States is
supporting Ukraine with financial, technical and non-lethal
security assistance as it prepares for democratic
Presidential elections on May 25th, and works to protect a
peaceful, secure, prosperous and unified future for its
people. Second, we are stepping up our effort to reassure
our NATO allies—an area that DASD Farkas will address in
detail— and we are providing support to other
“front-line” states like Moldova and Georgia. Third, we
are steadily raising the economic costs for Russia’s
occupation and illegal annexation of Crimea and its
continuing efforts to destabilize eastern and southern
Ukraine; Assistant Secretary Glaser will address the
sanctions we’ve imposed and what’s next. And fourth, we
are working with Ukraine and our European partners to leave
the door open for diplomatic de-escalation should Russia
change course, and make a serious effort to implement its
April 17 Geneva commitments.

Today, I want to focus my
remarks on events since the April 17th meeting in Geneva and
on the crucial 19 days from now until the May 25th
Presidential elections in Ukraine. First, I will provide an
update on the Geneva Joint Statement’s implementation and
events on the ground in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Second, I will address how the United States and the
international community are working with Ukraine to protect
the May 25th elections even as Russia refuses to recognize
the Ukrainian government’s legitimacy and Russian agents
and surrogates sow mayhem and separatism from Slovyansk to
Odesa. Finally, I want to speak about the other victim of
President Putin’s policies – the Russian
people.

First, a quick reminder about the commitments made
in Geneva. At its core, it is a grand bargain that offers
amnesty for those who vacate seized buildings and deep,
broad decentralization of power to Ukraine’s regions
through national dialogue and constitutional reform, as the
other half of Geneva is implemented: an end to violence,
intimidation, the seizing of buildings and weapons, with
both parts overseen and facilitated by the OSCE.

The
Ukrainian government began implementing its part of Geneva
even before the ink was dry on the text of the Joint
Statement. The day after Geneva, the government of Ukraine
sent a draft amnesty bill to the Rada, and that bill would
be law now if it had not been blocked by the Communists and
the Party of Regions. Authorities in Kyiv dismantled
barricades and opened streets. Maidan activists peacefully
vacated the Kyiv city administration building. President
Turchinov and Prime Minister Yatsenyuk made speeches
confirming their commitment to decentralize an unprecedented
amount of political and economic authority to Ukraine’s
regions through constitutional reform and to protect
language rights, in offers far more sweeping than any Moscow
affords its own regions and citizens. On April 14th and
29th, the constitutional reform commission held public
conferences to which all the regions were invited. Ukrainian
security forces instituted an Easter pause in their
operations in eastern Ukraine, and sent senior officials out
with the OSCE teams to Donetsk, Slovyansk, Luhansk and other
embattled cities to try to talk separatists into pursuing
their aims politically rather than through violence.

In
contrast, Russia fulfilled none of its commitments—none,
zero. After we left Geneva, no one in Moscow at any level
even issued a public statement calling for buildings and
checkpoints in eastern Ukraine to be vacated and weapons
turned in. Russia declined a request by the OSCE to send
senior representatives to eastern Ukraine to insist on
separatist compliance with Geneva. In fact, separatists in
Donetsk and Luhansk told OSCE observers that they had had no
messages at all from Russia urging them to stand
down.

Instead, since April 17th, all the efforts of the
Ukrainian side and of the OSCE, have been met with more
violence, mayhem, kidnappings, torture and death. Pro-Russia
separatists have seized at least 35 buildings and 3 TV/radio
centers in 24 towns. Armed and organized Russian agents –
sometimes described as “little green men” – appeared
in cities and towns across Donetsk and into Luhansk. At
least 22 kidnappings have been attributed to pro-Russia
separatists – including the 8 Vienna Document inspectors
and their Ukrainian escorts who have now been released after
8 days as hostages. The bodies of three Ukrainians have been
found near Slovyansk all bearing the signs of torture.
Peaceful rallies have been beset by armed separatist thugs.
Roma families have fled Slovyansk under extreme duress. As
the violence grew, the United States and the EU imposed more
sanctions at the end of April. On Friday, the Ukrainian
government announced that separatists used MANPADs to shoot
down a Ukrainian helicopter, killing the pilots. And Friday
also saw the deadliest tragedy of this conflict: the death
of more than 40 in Odesa following an afternoon of violent
clashes reportedly instigated by pro-Russian separatists
attacking an initially peaceful rally in favor of national
unity – similar to many that have happened in Odessa since
the start of the Maidan movement.

Today, Russia claims it
has “no influence” over the separatists and provocateurs
rampaging in eastern and southern Ukraine. In Odesa, it
should come as no surprise that the Ukrainian authorities
report that those arrested for igniting the violence
included people whose papers indicate that they come from
Transnistria, the Crimea region of Ukraine, and Russia. As
Secretary Kerry told this committee in April, we continue to
have high confidence that Russia’s hand is behind this
instability. They are providing material support. They are
providing funding. They are providing weapons. They are
providing coordination, and there are Russians agents on the
ground in Ukraine involved in this.

Equally worrying,
today from Slovyansk to Odesa the playbook is identical to
what we saw in Crimea: first you create upheaval in towns
that were completely peaceful just 2 months before, then you
intimidate the local population, and hold bogus independence
referenda on 2 weeks’ notice, as have just been declared
for May 11 in the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples’
Republics. And we all remember what came next in Crimea:
Russian “peace-keepers” swarmed in to “protect” the
will of the voters. Just as we do not accept Russia’s
declared need for these so-called “peace-keepers” in
Crimea, we will not accept any unilateral decision to deploy
unsanctioned Russian “peace-keepers” to eastern or
southern Ukraine. Russia’s military intervention in
Ukraine thus far is a clear violation of international law,
and Russia fools no one by calling its troops
“peace-keepers.” Russia has a track record of using the
term “peacekeeping” as a cover for occupation and
unlawful military intervention without authorization from
the UN Security Council and without the consent of the host
government.

And yet, the pro-Russia separatists do not
speak for the population of eastern and southern Ukraine.
More than two-thirds of Ukrainians in the east report they
plan to vote in the May 25 elections. They don’t want
little green men or separatists or Moscow preventing them
from making their choice freely. And with more than 20
candidates running, representing every viewpoint and every
region in Ukraine, these elections offer a real democratic
choice. That is why the United States, Europe and the
international community are working so hard with the
Ukrainian government to ensure free, fair elections take
place across Ukraine, and in alternate locations for
Crimeans, and if needed in eastern towns where that might be
necessary, too.

In March, the OSCE’s Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) deployed
100 long-term election observers to 26 locations around
Ukraine to monitor the lead-up to the election and help
ensure the country’s electoral process meets the highest
international standards. An interim report from ODIHR on
April 17 noted that the Central Election Commission had met
all deadlines thus far, and that technical preparations were
proceeding. For the first time in a presidential election,
Ukraine’s 36 million voters can review their registration
details online. All told, ODIHR is preparing to deploy 1,000
observers throughout the country to monitor the elections in
the largest monitoring effort in the organization’s
history. The United States will provide approximately one
tenth of the observers, and 26 other OSCE states are also
contributing. These 1,000 ODIHR observers will be joined by
more than 100 members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly,
including some of your colleagues here on the Hill.

The
United States is also working bilaterally to support free,
fair and informed elections. We have allocated $11.4 million
for non-partisan activities to improve the integrity of
these elections, including efforts to support voter
education and civic participation; assist the Central
Electoral Commission administer the elections effectively
and transparently; foster linkages between political parties
and civil society; support election security; and help to
guarantee a diverse, balanced and policy-focused media
environment. We are supporting 255 long-term observers and
over 3330 short-term observers, some of whom will provide a
parallel vote tabulation (PVT).

Free, fair elections on
May 25th are the best route to political and economic
stability in Ukraine. From Lviv to the Maidan to Odesa to
Donetsk, the Ukrainian people want and deserve the right to
determine their own future. Those who claim to be their
protectors should stand up for the ballot box if they truly
want the eastern Ukraine’s voices heard in the political
process rather than dictating to them through the barrels of
guns or barricades of burning tires. In this regard, it is
more than ironic that today Moscow asserts that both the
interim government and the May 25th elections are
illegitimate. It makes you wonder if Moscow is afraid to
allow the Ukrainian people to participate in an election
that is going to afford them far more choice than any in
recent Russian history. And as President Obama stated,
“the Russian leadership must know that if it continues to
destabilize eastern Ukraine and disrupt this month’s
elections, we will move quickly on additional steps,
including further sanctions that will impose greater
costs.”

Finally, as we work to empower the Ukrainian
people to determine their future democratically, we must
acknowledge that the people of Russia are being cheated of
their democratic rights. The Russian government’s reckless
actions in Ukraine have districted the world’s attention
from a new clamp down on civil society in Russia. Just since
the Sochi Olympics, the Russian government has taken new
aggressive steps to tighten control of the media, curb
dissent, criminalize free expression on the internet, and to
trample on human rights. Putin’s formula is simple:
intervention abroad, repression at home.

The Russian
economy is already showing that this model doesn’t lead to
a great Russia; it leads to a broke one. Russia’s credit
rating is hovering just above “junk” status. $51 billion
in capital has fled Russia since the beginning of the year,
approaching the $60 billion figure for all of 2013. Russian
bonds are trading at higher yields than any debt in Europe.
As the ruble has fallen, the Central Bank has raised
interest rates twice and has spent close to $30 billion from
its reserves to stabilize it. Unless Putin changes course,
at some point in the not-too-distant future, the current
nationalistic fever will break in Russia. When it does, it
will give way to a sweaty and harsh realization of the
economic costs. Then, if they are free enough to think for
themselves, Russia’s citizens will ask: What have we
really achieved? Instead of funding schools, hospitals,
science and prosperity at home in Russia, we have squandered
our national wealth on adventurism, interventionism and the
ambitions of a leader who cares more about empire than his
own citizens.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Russia
can still step back from supporting separatism and violence
and do the right thing. Working closely with the Ukrainians,
the OSCE, and key European governments including Germany, we
are once again supporting a diplomatic path forward – a
rejuvenation of the Geneva agreement: amnesty for
separatists and real political reform through elections and
constitutional change in exchange for the peace, security
and unity across Ukraine that these require. A Russia that
truly cares about the fate of the ethnic Russians in Ukraine
and the people of eastern Ukraine, let alone its own
citizens, will work with us on this. A Russia that doesn’t
will face a tightening grip of political and economic
isolation from the international community.

Since 1992, we
have provided $20 billion to Russia to support pursuit of
transition to the peaceful, prosperous, democratic state its
people deserve. We are not seeking to punish Russia. We
support the rights of all individuals—those of Russians
and Ukrainians, alike—to have a clean, open, accountable
government rooted in democracy and rule of law.

In 19
days, the Ukrainian people will have the opportunity to make
that choice. As Vice President Biden said during his visit
to Kyiv, “This may be the most important election in the
history of Ukraine. This is a chance to make good on the
aspirations of the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians east
and west and every part of this country.”

It is in the
U.S. national security interest that the May 25th
presidential election reflects the will of Ukraine’s 45
million people. We stand united with the overwhelming
majority of the international community – in the G7, in
NATO, in the OSCE, in the UN General Assembly, in the
Council of Europe— in support of Ukraine’s democratic
choice. The stakes could not be higher – for Ukrainian
democracy, for European stability and for the future of a
rules-based international order.

Egyptian jets bombed Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday, a day after the group there released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, drawing Cairo directly into the conflict across its border. More>>

Ambassadors representing two countries under attack from ISIL, Bashar Ja’afari (right) of Syria, and Mohamed Ali Alhakim of Iraq, speak to journalists following the adoption of a Security Council resolution targeting sources of financing for ... More>>

Abdullah Abu Rahma, coordinator of the popular committee in the village of Bil’in where Kayla joined the protests, told ISM: “Kayla came to Palestine to stand in solidarity with us. She marched with us and faced the military that occupies our ... More>>

3 February 2015 – Parents in the United States must vaccinate their children against measles in order to maintain the high levels of immunity necessary in keeping outbreaks of the aggressively contagious virus small and contained, the United Nations World ... More>>

3 February 2015 – For the second time in as many days, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Security Council have jointly condemned the brutal killing of a civilian by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – this time deploring ... More>>